Overview
J1-ZS3821 is a downstream component of the Arabian-centered J1-L147.1 expansion and corresponds to pastoralist populations occupying the northern Arabian desert, the Jordanian steppe and the transitional zones between the Levant and Mesopotamia. Its formation parallels the intensification of mid Holocene desert pastoral mobility, supported by seasonal grazing circuits and oasis-linked settlement systems.
During the Bronze and Iron Ages, ZS3821-bearing groups participated in socio-economic networks centered on desert trade corridors, tribal confederations and the frontier zones between settled urban centers and nomadic territories. Derived branches reflect localized founder effects in desert margin habitats, caravan crossroads and upland-desert transition belts. Classical and early medieval populations maintained microbranch continuity tied to long-term pastoral lifeways.
Geographic distribution
Northern Arabia, Jordan, southern Syria, Iraq; low frequencies in Hijaz and the Levant interior.
Ancient DNA
- Chalcolithic Levantine genomes contain upstream J1 markers consistent with basal ZS3821 ancestry.
- Northern Arabian Bronze Age individuals show J1-P58 components tied to the lineage’s ancestral structure.
- Iron Age Syrian desert sites preserve derived subbranches.
- Classical desert fringe communities exhibit continuity with microbranches of the clade.
- Early Arab tribal formations likely transmitted later sublineages across northern Arabia and Mesopotamia.
Phylogeny & subclades
A desert-adapted branch of the J1-L147.1 macroclade with diversification across the northern Arabian and southern Syrian desert ecologies.
- ZS3821*
- Northern Arabian microbranches
- Syrian desert derivatives
Notes & context
ZS3821 is informative for mapping the demographic evolution of pastoralist societies across the northern Arabian and Syrian desert corridors.
References & external links